Marissa Mayer’s $59m pay package might make her the best paid female executive
in America, but the Yahoo! boss claims she never intended to scale the
corporate ladder.

In an interview in the US edition of Vogue, Ms Mayer, 38, said she set out to be a computer programmer, and had to be persuaded by Eric Schmidt, Google’s chairman and former chief executive, to take a more senior position.

“I didn’t set out to be at the top…I’m just geeky and shy and I like to code,” she said. “Once Eric Schmidt pointed out to me that at Google, when you want to have an impact that’s bigger than just you, you move from being an individual contributor to managing a team. And I was like, oh, right….It just sort of happened.”

Ms Mayer moved from Google to Yahoo! just over a year ago, in which time the latter company’s share price has climbed 70pc.

However, in the interview, which was accompanied by glamourous photos of Ms Mayer lolling on a sunlounger in designer clothes, Ms Mayer also revealed that she puts in the hours.

“One night [shortly after joining Yahoo!] I looked up and was like, ‘Oh, my God, it’s midnight and I have a husband and I’m, like, eight months pregnant. I need to leave! I was just here working, having the best possible time.